Star Trek:Odyssey 23:Where Mortals are Forbidden
by rylansato
Summary: The Federation has fought against their mirror counterparts for over a year and it has come down to final battle between these two merciless enemies in Earth's orbit with the Federation on the brink of defeat.
1. The Fleet

Star Trek: Odyssey 23: Where Mortals Are Forbidden

_And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: One more soldier reporting in, sir. I've served my time in Hell._

_Captain's Log: Stardate: 58729.0: According to our initial reports, the Terran Empire had planned their final assault on Earth at the end of the year. However, due to the defection of the Mirror Tuvok, we have received information that the Empire has moved up their attack to a few days from now. Starfleet has ordered most of the fleet to Sector Zero Zero One. We are however en route to Deep Space Nine to lead the Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh fleets to Earth. However, the Twelfth, Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth fleets are currently missing as there is no idea as to their whereabouts. Those four fleets could be the difference in this battle and the final outcome of this war._

The Alexandria dropped out of warp in the Bajor sector near Deep Space Nine. Over two thousand starships littered the area around the former Cardassian station. Some were docked at the docking ring, while others were docked at the upper and lower pylons. The rest of the ships orbited the station. Captain Allensworth stood up from his command chair.

"Hoshi, hail Deep Space Nine."

Hoshi pressed a few buttons on her console and a few seconds later, the image of Captain Benjamin Sisko appeared.Captain Sisko disappeared in the fire caves of Bajor in the days following the Dominion war. He had fought the Cardassian Gul Dukat and together they fell into the fire caves where Dukat was sent to the Pah Wraiths and Sisko was taken by the Bajoran Prophets. After six years of being with the Prophets, Sisko had finally returned and taken over as commander of Deep Space Nine.

"Ah, Captain Allensworth." Sisko said. "The fleet is ready for departure."

"Good. We'll leave in six hours." Allensworth said.

Sisko nodded. "We'll be ready then and then we'll put an end to this war."

"I like the way you think, Captain. Alexandria out."

The screen switched back to the view of the station and of the many starships surrounding it. Commander Sparhawk got up from his chair and headed for the turbolift. He saw one of the starships docked at the station was the Challenger. He headed for the transporter room to beam over to the station.

Shortly later, Lieutenant Liz Dowler walked into Quark's bar that was crowded with mostly gray and black uniforms from all three divisions. She ordered a drink from the bar and turned around to see if she knew anyone in the bar. She felt as if she was the only one from the Alexandria in the bar. She heard the sound of a glass being set down on the bar behind her. She turned around to see Quark letting go of the glass.

"Here's your glass, Lieutenant." The Ferengi said.

"Thank you." She said right before taking a sip of her raktajino. Quark walked off inputting commands into his PADD. She continued looking around for someone she knew. She saw Commander Sparhawk sitting with a female she assumed was his fiancé. A slight hint of defeat entered her thoughts because she did find the first officer attractive but she knew it was just a slight crush. She continued to scan the room and saw Captain Allensworth sitting alone. She walked over to him and he looked up at her.

"Yes, Lieutenant?" He asked.

"Well sir, I was wondering if I could join you." She said.

"Please." He said pointing to the seat, giving her his permission to do so. She pulled out the chair and sat down. There was silence between them for a few seconds before Liz came up with something to talk about.

"So, do you think we'll come out of this on top, sir?"

"Yes I do, Lieutenant." He said. "Even more so now that Captain Sisko with us." Jermaine looked at Liz investigating the look on her face. "Are you not as sure, Liz?"

Liz was a bit surprised by the captain using her first name. She nodded. "Yes, sir. This has been a close war and we've been lucky so far but there have been people who haven't been as lucky. The last battle at the El-Adrel system was way too close for my comfort and it just seems that as of lately all the Federation has been doing is engage retreat engage retreat. It just doesn't seem like we're going to win this war."

Jermaine knew and understood her concern. He actually shared the same view as her and he was also worried about the outcome of this war and this battle in particular. He stared down at his drink and rotated the glass on the table.

Liz saw that her captain looked troubled about this whole situation and how much a reality that defeat could become unless they stopped their mirror counterparts.

"Are you going to still be in command of the fleet or are they giving Captain Sisko command?" Liz asked changing the subject slightly.

"I'll still be leading this fleet. Captain Merriell of the Syracuse is in command of the fleet in the Terran System and we still have no word on Captain Stork and his fleets. The last reported location of those four fleets was the Argelius sector."

"Is it possible that they were destroyed by the Empire?" Liz asked.

Jermaine shrugged. "It's possible but we should've heard something about it. There would've been survivors. Or if there weren't then Empire would've been bragging about it or something. Like I said, we should've heard something."

"What if it's another battle site like Mirai battle site?" Liz asked.

"It's completely possible. As Ambassador Spock as said many times: there are always possibilities."

The Mirai battle site was a battlefield from the Dominion War where not a single crewmember from any starship on either side survived. It wasn't until last year was when it was discovered by the Alexandria. It was also that time when the Alexandria was sucked into an anomaly and sent to an alternate 2165. It was then they had added crewmembers to their ship's compliment including Julia McKenzie and Hoshi Sato.

The Mirai battle site has been turned into a memorial for the participants of the Dominion war just as Wolf 359 was turned into one for the lives lost in the battle against the Borg.

Jermaine felt the slight vibration of his comm. badge as well as the small chirping sound it made when it activated.

"Alexandria to Captain Allensworth." M'Ress said.

"Go ahead." He said tapping his comm. badge.

"We just received word from the Syracuse. The Terran Empire has begun its assault on Earth and our ships are severely outnumbered."

Allensworth shot Liz a glance. Urgency was spread all over his face. He stood up and tapped his comm. badge again, ending the conversation with M'Ress. He then called out into the air, to activate the intercom on Deep Space Nine.

"Allensworth to all Starfleet personnel. Report to your ships, we are moving out at once."


	2. The Defense of DS9

The countless Starfleet personnel moved through the Promenade of Deep Space Nine on both the upper and lower decks, each one heading to their own respective starship. Commander Sparhawk walked with his fiancé to Upper Pylon Two, where the Challenger was docked. He would have to report to the transporter room since the Alexandria orbited the station.

"Promise me something, Jason." She said.

"Sure, anything." He replied.

"Promise me that we both come back alive."

"I had planned on it." He said with a grin. "I plan on marrying you after the war."

Suddenly, the red alert klaxon sounded all throughout the station. Then, Captain Sisko's voice came through the intercom. "An Imperial fleet has just appeared through the Bajoran wormhole and is on an attack vector for the station."

Seconds after Sisko's voice stopped, the station shuddered under the attack of the Terran Empire. Jason looked to April.

"Come on, I'll get you to your ship." He said.

"What about you?" She asked.

"I can beam from anywhere on the station. I don't have to go to the transporter room. Come on."

He grabbed her hand and they rushed to where the Challenger was docked. The station rocked violently as they struggled to keep their footing. Minutes later, the two reached the corridor that led to the upper pylon. Then without warning, the station rocked more violently than before, knocking both officers off their feet. Jason's head bounced off the wall, knocking him unconscious.

Jason awoke shortly later, he didn't know if was seconds, minutes, or even hours. He figured it couldn't have been too much longer since the station still rocked viciously. He slowly pushed himself upright, shaking his head to straighten his mind.

"April, you okay?" He asked. He opened his completely and saw the corridor completely filled with smoke. April still hadn't responded to his question. "April?" Jason stumbled to his feet and saw that part of the ceiling had collapsed…with April underneath.

Jason ran over and began pulling the debris off of his fiancé. "It's all right, April. I'll get you out of here." He had gotten a lot of the debris off of her by the time he had heard someone approaching.

"Help me." Jason called out.

The footsteps quickened and seconds later the individual appeared from around the corner. It was Doctor Julian Bashier. Bashir ran up to him, opening his tricorder. A monotone beep came from the small device. Regardless that Jason knew exactly what that sound meant, he continued to try to pull the debris off of her. Julian holstered his tricorder.

"I'm sorry, Commander. She's gone." He said pulling on Jason's arm. "We gotta go. This deck is about to breach."

"We can't just leave her here." Jason said.

"She's gone, sir. We need to go." Julian said pulling on him.

Jason felt another pair of hands on him. It was Captain Sisko. He had come up to the deck as well to assist Julian in evacuating the deck of any possible people there. He knew how Sparhawk felt in this situation. It was similar to when he lost Jennifer at the hands of the Borg at Wolf 359.

The two of them struggled with Commander Sparhawk as they pulled him out of the corridor and to safety before the deck breached. Jason looked out one of the windows and saw identical starships fight one another. It was like watching twins fight each other to the death. One of the starships erupted into a ball of flames and Sparhawk hoped that it was an imperial starship.

"Looks like you're stuck here until the battle is over, Commander." Sisko said.

Jason looked at Captain Sisko as Bashir looked him over with a tricorder. Sisko placed a comforting hand on Sparhawk's shoulder. "I'm sorry about your fiancé."

Jason nodded, thanking him. Bashir walked off to handle other injured crewmembers; once he was satisfied that Jason was going to be okay.

Meanwhile, the Alexandria whipped around and launched its weapons at the pursuing Imperial starship. The fierce volley of photon and quantum torpedoes broke through the Intrepid class ship's shields and ultimately destroyed. Captain Allensworth allowed a brief moment for celebration for beating another opponent and surviving the attack before giving orders to go after another ship.

"McKenzie, target the ISS Stalin and fire at will." Allensworth ordered.

"Aye, sir." She said as she entered the commands.

Allensworth walked over to Hoshi's station and whispered something in her ear. She nodded and pressed a few buttons as the captain walked away.

Allensworth looked at the screen just in time to see two quantum torpedos slam into the bridge of an Imperial Nebula class ship, that later spun out of control, out of the Alexandria's way as the Sovereign class ship moved past to put its attention to another Imperial ship. The Alexandria fired three photon torpedoes from its aft launcher that struck the derelict ship, causing it to explode.

Hours later, the Federation came out victorious in their defense of Deep Space Nine with the destruction of the final Imperial ship. The Empire lost over three hundred starships while the Federation lost a little over a hundred ships. Now, the Federation fleet was moving into position to head to the heart of the Federation, Earth.

"That attack was unexpected." McKenzie said.

"This is war, Lieutenant. Expect the unexpected." Allensworth said.

"Why did they come through the wormhole and not through one of their own anomalies?" Dowey asked.

"Probably so we'd have less time to react." Merriell said. "When they use one of their own wormholes, we can detect them and prepare ourselves. If they did it in the Gamma Quadrant and then entered the Bajoran wormhole then we wouldn't detect them until the wormhole opened and by then it would be almost too late."

Commander Sparhawk walked on to the bridge and headed straight for his chair. Allensworth had heard what happened on the station and he didn't dare talk to his first officer about it. Jason would talk about it when he felt it was time. Captain Allensworth sat down in his chair, ready to get underway.

"Mister Dowey, set a course for Earth. Maximum warp."


	3. Turn The Page

The Fleet from Deep Space Nine was on their way to Earth. Captain Allensworth walked through the ship as his ship led the fleet.

_Captain's Log: Stardate: 58739.5: The fleet is currently at high warp on our way to Earth to help the rest of our forces defend the Federation's home world against the Terran Empire's overwhelming numbers. The Empire had caught us off guard with their attack on Deep Space Nine. We continue to prepare our defenses for the battle that is already taking place. However tonight, I'm contemplating the idea that it will not be possible to defeat this enemy. _

Allensworth had walked through Main Engineering, seeing Commander Zofchak talking with his right hand man or in this case, right hand woman, Lieutenant Commander Kazarick. Allensworth passed through without as much as a word. He then passed through Sickbay, checking on his chief medical officer, Doctor Plumley. Like usual, she had everything under control there. She had all of her medical staff prepared and in position for when the battle began.

Allensworth roamed the halls, acting as if he had a purpose, when in reality he didn't. He casually walked into Astral Anthropology lab. The lab was slightly empty with the exception of a few crew members.

"Restless?" A voice said from his left.

He turned his head to see Lieutenant Dowler walking up to him with a PADD in her hand. He grinned at her.

"It's a bit of a tradition, Lieutenant. Touring the ship before a battle."

"Isn't it before a hopeless battle?"

"Not necessarily. Nelson toured the HMS Victory before the battle at Trafalgar. Even though he was killed by a French sharpshooter, the battle was still won. We may even be victorious against the Terran Empire. I wonder if Nicolas the second, watching his people riot and wanting to go into exile fully realized that the Czar reign in Russia was coming to its end. This is just another page in history. This may be the end of our way of life as we know it. Turn the page."

The intercom kicked on with Hoshi's voice. "Captain, we're receiving a message from both Commander Donatra and Commander Kurn."

"I'll let you handle that, Commander."

"Aye, sir." Hoshi said before cutting the communication.

The intercom kicked on again, this time it was Commander Merriell. "We're approaching the Terran System, sir."

"I'm on my way." Allensworth said walking out into the corridor, on his way to the bridge.

The Federation fleet went head to head against their mirror counterparts. The whole battle seemed to take up the entire system with the majority of the battles taking place around Venus, Earth and Mars while other battles went as far out as Pluto. The rate of Federation ships being lost was a lot faster than the Empire losing their ships.

With his tactical officer lying dead at his feet, due to the console exploding in his face, Captain David Merriell opened fire on the nearest Imperial starship. The phasers lashed out, striking multiple points on the ship's shields. The ship turned its attention on the Syracuse and opened fire. The ISS Manzanar fired its own weapons, slamming into the Syracuse. Captain Merriell was thrown to his feet as well as anyone else who was standing on the bridge.

He struggled with the failing inertial dampeners to get back on his feet. Using the tactical station as support, he succeeded.

"Report." He said.

"We're losing main power. Shields are down and our weapons are gone." His operations officer said.

Merriell slammed a fist down on the console, damning it and hoping it would kick back on so he could fight back. "Like I'm going to go down without a fight. Prepare a collision course."

"Sir, there are more starships coming in." The lieutenant commander reported. "Led by the Alexandria."

Even in the midst of all the destruction and death, a smile crept across the captain's face. The ISS Manzanar came in for the kill, only to erupt in a ball of fire after three quantum torpedoes struck the bridge, engineering section and the starboard nacelle. The large Federation fleet from Deep Space Nine had finally arrived and engaged the enemy in battle.

Allensworth stood in center of the bridge. He knew the odds have evened out but the Imperial forces still outnumbered the Federation forces.

"Sir," Hoshi said. "We're being hailed by the ISS Alexandria."

"On screen."

"Ah Captain Allensworth, so nice you could make it. I was hoping you weren't killed in the little attack on your space station." Mirror Allensworth said.

"What do you want?" Allensworth asked.

"I'm going to offer you the chance to surrender and save the lives of the men and women you will send to their deaths. What about the daughters of Commander Zofchak and Sato? Are you willing to sacrifice their lives?" Mirror Allensworth said.

"If the cause is just." Allensworth said. "I know they'd rather give their lives than grow up under the rule of the Terran Empire. Are you prepared to die today, Jermaine?"

"I know you better than that, Captain. Remember I am you. You know that we will win this war and the Federation will fall."

"Well you obviously do not know yourself all that well." Allensworth said. He then looked over to Hoshi and gave her a nod. She turned around to her console and entered commands into her console.

Suddenly, Klingon and Romulan war ships de-cloaked, surrounding the Imperial starships. Mogai, D'deridex, and Scimitar class Romulan ships along with Klingon birds of Prey, attack crusiers and battle crusiers all de-cloaked, coming to the aid of their Federation neighbors. The odds had evened out if not in the favor of the Federation. A very surprised look fell upon everyone with the exception of Captain Allensworth and Commander Sato. The Mirror Allensworth cut the communication without saying anything further.

Commander Zofchak slightly grinned at the sight of the de-cloaking ships. "Klingons and Romulans? I'll be damned."

Captain Allensworth sat down in his command chair with a slight grin on his face, knowing he had the Empire up against the wall. "Now let's get to work."


	4. The Battle

With the Empire now outnumbered, they were on beginning to lose the battle that would decide the fate of the universe. Normal wars decide who controls certain areas of territory, such as the old wars on Earth or even the wars with other species in different areas of space. The Alpha Quadrant was at stake during the Dominion war. If the Dominion had won that war and taken the Alpha Quadrant, the Beta Quadrant would have later fallen. However, since this war was between two universes, an entire universe hangs in the balance of this war, a type of war that had never been fought before.

A maelstrom of fire swept through the raging battlefield as an entire wing of Peregrine class fighters committed themselves to a suicidal voyage into the hulls of a Romulan Warbird. The ensuing flames quickly engulfed the D'deridex class ship and the fighters that remained from the wake of the explosion moved on ahead to their next target, an Excelsior class ship. The two fighters slammed into the ship's stardrive section. The ship's saucer section was ripped from the rest of the ship as it exploded and thrown into an Imperial Galaxy class ship.

The Alexandria charged into the fire, flanked by the Defiant and Voyager. The trio descended upon an Akira class ship. The Imperial ship made an effort to come about, but the lack of maneuverability proved to be fatal. Combined with the Defiant's pulse phasers, the phaser beams from both Voyager and Alexandria carved into the hull of the Akira class ship, breaching it and ultimately slicing through it in various locations. The Akira class ship's core breached and it exploded.

After flying through the crimson explosion, more trouble lied ahead.

"We've got three hundred Imperial ships dead ahead." Lieutenant McKenzie said.

"And half of them have probably locked targets on us." Merriell said from his station.

A flash of orange light briefly illuminated the bridge as the lead ship, a Galaxy class ship, took pot shots at the Alexandria. The deck rumbled underneath Allensworth's feat.

"Full axis rotation to starboard. Fire all dorsal phasers." Allensworth ordered from the center of the bridge.

The ship responded accordingly and all of the phaser arrays on top of the ship glowed and discharged upon the bridge of a Mirror Galaxy class starship. With the bridge destroyed, the ship spun out of control and was now target practice for anyone who wanted it. A Klingon Bird of Prey came swooping in, destroying the ship.

"Fire at will." Allensworth said.

A string of photon, quantum and transphasic torpedoes lashed out across the battlefield, easily taking out multiple Imperial ships. The three Federation ships came under heavy fire. Joining the trio were a group of Klingon battle cruisers and Romulan Mogai class ships. The Alexandria and its allies fired their weapons as they drove deeper into the Terran Empire's lines.

With his workstation suddenly on the verge of a power failure, Dustin Zofchak was nonetheless able to determine the source. "An EPS conduit just ruptured on deck six, section twelve. The hull has fractured in two places and is on its way to breaching."

"Seal off that section." Sparhawk said.

As Dustin was taking that course of action, his console beepbed again. "Another EPS rupture, deck eight, section nine."

The ship took another hit before anyone could respond. The jolt sent everyone who was standing, to the deck.

"We've got a Sovereign class ship on our tail." Merriell said. "It's the Alexandria."

Allensworth got to his feet and stared at the screen. His counterpart's ship was on their tail and closing. "I think a barrage of quantum torpedoes is something they'll enjoy."

Four blue quantum torpedoes were launched out of the aft torpedo launcher on the saucer section of the Alexandria-A. As the torpedoes approached, the Mirror Alexandria made every effort to get out of the way. The ship came about to evade the barrage, but it was too late. Two of the torpedoes slammed right into the shields of the Imperial ship. The other two torpedoes missed the Alexandria but slammed into the port nacelle of a Luna class ship.

The Alexandria-A started to rattle, and Allensworth instinctively knew the EPS rupture on deck eight was about to turn into something more than a minor situation. A beam of orange light suddenly streaked across the viewscreen. It grazed the shields and shook the deck a bit more. A second blast soon followed and this one was just as mild as the first.

Dowey furiously tapped away at the helm but his actions didn't seem to be doing much of anything, a third shot struck the ship and still provided little damange.

"The Alexandria took heavy damage to its tactical systems." McKenzie said as another blast struck the ship.

A burst of swirling mostly white, light shot across the viewscreen. Jermaine Allensworth instantly recognized the light as a transphasic torpedo and he prepared himself for the damage it was about to do. Suddenly, a Klingon Bird of Prey eclipsed the viewscreen and exploded in a flash of crimson light.

Allensworth briefly sighed with relief but at the same time he thought of the Klingon crew. He knew that Klingons view death differently than Humans and they died a warrior's death but it still added to the death toll. He was certain that the entire crew of that Bird of Prey were all dead. In his mind, Allensworth could see countless of similar explosions on both sides. People were dying. With every moment that passed, the death toll climbed higher and higher and at the moment, it was already unfathomably high and until the Terran Empire was defeated, that infamous number was sure to grow.

"The Defiant and Voyager are both disabled." Merriell said.

"We need to end this now." Allensworth said.

"Sir," Merriell said. "It's the Enterprise. Their Enterprise. They're on an intercept course and weapons are locked."

Allensworth sighed. "I was really hoping they got pasted."

The ISS Enterprise fired its weapons that slammed into the Alexandria's shields. "Shields are down to forty-seven percent." McKenzie said. The ship rocked violently again. "Weapons are offline."

Allensworth's eyes widened as the ruthless Mirror counterpart of Captain Picard came in for another attack run on the now defenseless Alexandria.


	5. It's Over But Not Quite

Hilary Kazarick pulled herself away from the inner workings of the anodyne relays. She wiped her soiled hands on the front of her uniform and tapped her communicator. With a sigh, she came to her feet. "Kazarick here."

"Hilary," Dustin's voice said a second later. "How are the weapons coming? Should I go down to the shuttlebay with a hand phaser and start shooting at the Imperials that way or can you help us out with our little dilemma?"

She found it a bit amusing that Dustin could keep that type of attitude in the middle of a battle. Luckily, she had been anticipating the weapons going offline ever since the very first EPS rupture and was able to get a head start on restoring the weapons before they went offline. "I just finished rerouting main power through the secondary systems. You should have phasers."

"Should? That's not very encouraging, Hil."

"I agree, Commander but with the numerous EPS ruptures that are creating all kinds of hell I can't make any guarantees."

"Fair enough. Try and get the torpedoes back online. Zofchak out."

Dustin was proud to have Kazarick on his engineering team. She was highly competent and if she thought the torpedoes were operational then he would damn well believe it.

Moments later, the tactical station came online. "Sir," McKenzie said. "We have phasers and it looks like the torpedoes are about to come back online as well."

"If I ever become Captain, she's going to be my chief engineer." Dustin said somewhat smiling.

Allensworth slightly turned around and gave his chief engineer a smile. He turned back to the viewscreen. "Fire."

The Alexandria fired its phasers at the ISS Enterprise. The beams slammed into the shields. Allensworth could see power fluctuations aboard the Enterprise just by watching the light from the warp nacelles flicker.

In that same instant, sparks dance across the Alexandria's hull. Pieces of the hull were torn away from the ship in a matter of seconds. The entire phaser array was annihilated.

Hilary Kazarick angrily jammed her fist into her workstation. "Damn it." She then slapped her communicator. "Bridge, we're back to square one."

"I'm on my way down." Dustin replied.

Hilary now knew that whatever needed to be fixed was going to get fixed now with Commander Zofchak on his way down and with him fixing things, laws of physics be damned.

"What happened?" Allensworth asked through the comm. system.

"Another EPS overload." Kazarick grumbled. "Don't worry, I'm already on it. We'll shoot out of the windows if we have to. Engineering out."

The ship rocked again. And once again, Allensworth was thrown off his feet.

"Report."

"Shields have failed, no weapons, hull breaches on decks five, six and seven. Doctor Plumley has set up triage facilities in Ten Forward and cargo bay three."

"Captain," McKenzie said. "The Enterprise is coming about. They're targeting the bridge."

The familiar yet somewhat unfamiliar voice of Captain Picard came through the bridge's comm. system.

"USS Alexandria. Stand down and prepare to be boarded." The mirror Picard said.

"That'll be the day." Allensworth said.

"Your entire planet will fall as well as any world in this…"

Allensworth did a slashing motion in front of his neck to Hoshi, signaling her to cut the transmission. When the bridge was silent again, Allensworth figured that the mirror Picard was infuriated that he was cut off. As if that mattered to Captain Allensworth.

"Sir," Merriell said. "A wormhole is opening up and more ships are coming through."

Allensworth felt his stomach tighten. His ship was practically dead in space and was about to be destroyed. It seemed that the Terran Empire also had a trick up their sleeve as well.

"It's the Enterprise." Merriell said. "Our Enterprise."

A smile crept along Allensworth's face. The USS Enterprise came flying in from above firing weapons at its counterpart, which erupted into a giant explosion. More ships followed the Enterprise.

"Sir, it's the Twelfth, Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth fleets. They're all coming through the wormhole."

The newly arriving ships came into the battlefield with weapons ablaze. More Imperial starships fell at the hands of the Federation. The Enterprise and Thunderchild moved up along side of the damaged Alexandria-A as if they were protecting it. Both ships on either side of the Alexandria had taken some damage while on the other side but didn't compare to the condition of the hull of the Alexandria.

Hoshi turned around in her chair. "Sir, Captain Picard is signaling for the Imperial fleet to power down and surrender. He says that the Empire has fallen, the Federation task force has laid waste to the Imperial Starfleet headquarters and they have the Emperor and Empress in custody aboard the Enterprise."

"I'll be damned." Allensowrth said. "No wonder why no one had heard from those ships. They were on a covert mission to the other side and took out their headquarters."

Merriell was the next to speak. "Sir, the Imperial starships are powering down weapons. They're surrendering. We won."

The bridge crew cheered. Merriell turned his head to look at Christine and he smiled at her. They were going to be able to raise their child without having to worry about the war. Allensworth let his crew cheer. It was something they've been waiting for over a year, since that fateful day in the Talos Star System.

Merriell's control board began beeping. He turned back around and entered several commands into the console. "Sir, the ISS Alexandria is releasing some sort of spherical object from their main cargo bay." He pressed more buttons to get a better reading on the object. "It's a subspace disruptor."

Allensworth's eyes widened. A subspace disruptor was one of the type of weapons banned by the Khitomer Accords because of their unpredictable nature. When this weapon exploded, not only did it create a subspace tear like an isolytic burst but, it contained an Omega molecule which would destroy subspace and render warp travel impossible.

"What's the status of the Alexandria?" Allensworth asked.

"It's going to warp." Merriell said.

Allensworth looked up just in time to see the ISS Alexandria leap into warp. "McKenzie, tractor the disruptor. We're going to shove that thing down their throats." He then tapped his comm. badge. "Bridge to Engineering, Dustin do we have warp engines back online?"

"Yes, sir but I wouldn't recommend we go any higher than warp four."

"We may have to, Commander." Allensworth said.

Dustin sighed. "Understood, sir."

Allensworth ended the transmission by hitting his communicator. He then looked down to Dowey. "Lieutenant, pursue course. Hit it."

"Aye, sir." Dowey said.

Once the Alexandria-A had the subspace disruptor in its tractor beam, it leapt into warp in pursuit of their counterparts.


	6. One Last Trick

"We're in range, sir." McKenzie reported.

"Fire photon torpedoes." Allensworth said.

While at warp, the Alexandria-A fired a group of photon torpedoes that were aimed at the mirror ship's warp nacelles. Two torpedoes hit the starboard nacelle while one hit the port nacelle. It was enough to drop them out of warp. The Alexandria-A followed. In a flash of light, the Alexandria dropped out of warp and came about to fight their warp disabled enemy.

"Now that we're in the middle of open space, disengage tractor beam." Allensworth said.

Merriell pressed a few buttons on his console and the Alexandria released the subspace disruptor. The reason Allensworth had latched onto the disruptor with a tractor beam and then gone to warp was due to the warp field's effect on subspace weapons. Subspace weapons are disabled when they are inside a starship's warp field. The only way to detonate it now is manually.

The ISS Alexandria opened fire with phasers and photon torpedoes. The USS Alexandria did its best to dodge the torpedoes but the phaser beams drilled into its shields with a vengeance.

Without affording himself a single coherent thought, Lieutenant Dowey guided his fingers over the helm with nothing more than pure instinct. A giant flash of orange light swept across the somewhat busted viewscreen. The deck shook violently again and before he knew it, Dowey was holding on to the helm to keep himself from being ejected out of his seat.

Allensworth pushed himself from the deck and looked at the transformed bridge. An eerie crimson haze hung in the air and a mess of EPS conduits dangled from the ceiling. Adrenaline rushed through him as he got to his feet.

"TARGET THEIR GOD DAMNED WARP CORE!" Allensworth shouted.

McKenzie did as she was told and the Alexandria fired more photon torpedoes with an escort of quantum torpedoes. The line of photon torpedoes crashed into the shields of the mirror starship, creating enough mayhem in the shield grid for the quantum torpedoes to get through and bang into the ship where the primary and secondary hulls combine. The mirror starship fired aft phasers and struck the underside of the saucer section just past the captain's yacht and moved down into the secondary hull near the deflector dish and the engineering section. More EPS conduits exploded as everyone met with the deck once again. Flames erupted in engineering as people were tossed from their stations. People on the upper levels of engineering weren't so lucky from being thrown from their stations and practically across the room.

"Report." Allensworth ordered.

"Shields are down to forty-seven percent." McKenzie said.

"Fire ventral phasers." Allensworth said.

The Alexandria fired from its phaser array on the underside of the saucer section, striking multiple sections of its counterpart. The phaser beams penetrated their shields causing even more damage. Consoles exploded from every station on the bridge of the ISS Alexandria.

Doctor Plumley walked into main engineering at the request of Commander Zofchak. There were people who were badly injured and couldn't be taken to sickbay.

"Dustin, report." Allensworth said through the comm. system.

Zofchak stumbled a bit and held onto a console for support as he tapped his communicator badge. "We no longer have warp power. We just have impulse. We can't get to the core due to the radiation that is building…"

Dustin stumbled back and was about to fall to the deck if Plumley had noticed his distress and caught him. She pulled him back and sat him down carefully against the wall.

"Their shields have failed." Merriell reported.

"Target their starboard nacelle and fire." Allensworth said.

Two torpedoes flew out into space and impacted with the mirror ship's starboard nacelle, breaking it off from the rest of the ship. A giant explosion rocked the bridge sending the mirror crew to the deck.

Allensworth sat calmly in his chair and looked over to his communications officer. "Hoshi, signal the Alexandria and tell them to surrender or be destroyed."

Hoshi pressed a few buttons on her console and opened a channel to the bridge of their counterparts' ship. "Attention crew of ISS Alexandria. Stand down or be destroyed."

The mirror Allensworth got to his feet. His face was bloody, his uniform torn, and no one else on the bridge was getting up. He was the only bridge officer left. He stumbled over to the Ops station on the bridge and pulled the body of the dead officer out of the chair before sitting down.

"We have no reason to stand down." He said in response. "I knew what you would do the second I planted that subspace disruptor. I knew that you would tractor it and bring it to the final battle between us. I knew that we had taken more damage than you and we wouldn't last in a fight so I planted the disruptor, knowing you'd bring it with you to save the fleet. What you failed to realize is what I planned to do all along. I keep telling you this, Jermaine but you never listen. I can still detonate this subspace disruptor and without warp engines, you will suffer the same fate as your counterparts." He then cut the transmission.

"Computer, set auto destruct sequence. Authorization: Allensworth eight seven beta echo. One minute silent countdown."

"He cut the transmission, Captain." Hoshi said.

"Sir, I'm reading a build up in the Alexandria's engine core. It seems he has set the ship's auto destruct sequence. That explosion will be enough to detonate the subspace disruptor."

"How much time do we have?" Sparhawk asked.

"My guess a minute at most since that is the least amount of time allowed for auto destruction." Merriell said

Allensworth pressed a button on the arm of his chair. "Dustin, I need warp speed or we're all dead."

No response.

At that moment, Sparhawk got up from his chair and entered the turbolift.

"Dowey, get us out of here, best possible speed."

"Aye, sir."

The Alexandria swiveled around on full impulse and moved away from the mirror Alexandria.

Meanwhile, Commander Sparhawk entered main engineering. He saw Zofchak leaning against a wall with Doctor Plumley tending to him. Plumley didn't notice Sparhawk until he was approaching the forcefield that kept all the radiation near the warp core. She stood up and grabbed his arm.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" She demanded. "That radiation is lethal."

"I was just merely observing, Doctor. I came down here to help in any way I can."

"Fine." Plumley said. "Hand me that hypospray with the hyronalin in it." She said pointing to her group of hyposprays that were in her carrying case.

"This one?" Sparhawk asked.

Plumley looked over. "No, that's an ambizine hypospray, the one next to it." She turned her attention back to Commander Zofchak. The next thing she knew was the almost inaudible hiss of a hypospray pressed up against her neck.

Sparhawk gently lowered Plumley to the ground and tossed the ambizine hypospray to the deck. He then walked over to the controls and entered a few commands. A transporter beam whisked him away and took him to the other side of the forcefield.

Zofchak regained consciousness and got to his feet, seeing the first officer in a room full of lethal radiation. He ran over to forcefield.

"COMMANDER, GET OUT OF THERE!" He shouted.

Jason just ignored him as he operated a control panel and used a coil spanner to fix the plasma injectors. By then he heard another voice join Zofchak's, it was Plumley's voice.

Together the two of them shouted for Jason to get out of there but it was to no avail. They could do nothing but watch.

Aboard the bridge, the crew watched with high tension as their ship slowly moved away from the ISS Alexandria. Suddenly, the navigation console gave Lieutenant Dowey the signal that warp drive was available.

"Sir, we have warp drive." Dowey said.

Allensworth suddenly felt the adrenaline rush through his body as he stood up from his chair. "Helm, warp one, hit it."

The Alexandria's nacelles flashed and the ship warped away only seconds before the ISS Alexandria exploded, causing the subspace disruptor to explode. The omega particle inside detonated, no longer allowing starships to use warp drive in that area of space.

The officers on the bridge of the Alexandria relaxed. Jermaine touched the button on the arm of his chair. "Great job, Dustin."

"You better come down here, Captain." Dustin said solemnly.

"On my way." Allensworth said. He turned to Jason to tell him to take the bridge but his first officer wasn't there. "Alex, you have the bridge."

Allensworth entered the turbolift and headed for engineering as Merriell sat down in the center chair.

Moments later, Allensworth turned the corner into engineering and saw Zofchak, Plumley and Kazarick standing in front of a forcefield. He hurriedly approached them and saw Commander Sparhawk lying on the ground past the force field. It was him who had saved the ship at the cost of his own life. He ran towards the forcefield, not sure what he was going to do. His mind wasn't thinking clearly. It appeared to others that he was just going to lower the forcefield and go the side of his fallen friend.

Plumley, Zofchak and Kazarick stopped him before he could do anything. Plumley and Zofchak each grabbed an arm as Kazarick wrapped herself around the captain's waist.

"No, Captain. You can't lower the forcefield." Plumley said.

"But…" Allensworth began.

"Sir," Zofchak said. "He's dead."

The three felt Allensworth ease up and they felt it was okay to release him as the thought of his first officer dying sink in. Commander Jason Sparhawk would no longer walk the corridors of the USS Alexandria-A.


	7. Silent Guns

While the Alexandria was on its way back to Earth, Hilary Kazarick wrapped her fingers around the badly damaged EPS conduit and forcefully yanked it out of the blackened wall. It was just one of many ruined conduits in main engineering, and as it fell, a shower of sparks blanketed the floor.

"It's going to take months to get this ship back together." She said Commander Zofchak.

His face was smudged with soot and his brown hair was peppered with spots of ash, however, he was not at all discouraged by the bleak prediction. "With the war over, we get to go into the rebuilding phase."

Kazarick reached into the open conduit and yanked out a charred gel pack and handed it to Zofchak, who in turn tossed it into a rather large pile of burned out gel packs. As far as they could tell, all of the damaged components were removed and all that remained were the ODN relays and a few isolinear chips that helped run the secondary systems.

"Fortunately, most of the damage in engineering is superficial and we can have it repaired by tomorrow. However, the rest of the ship is a whole other story." Dustin said. "The senior officers are going to be meeting together in the observation lounge at fifteen hundred hours. I'm going to place you in charge of engineering during that time."

"You got it, sir."

The Alexandria had returned to Earth and Captain Allensworth beamed down to Starfleet Headquarters. He stood next to Captain Stork as well as Captain Picard and Captain Sisko. In front of them, Admiral Janeway, Admiral Ross and Admiral Ellison sat at a table across from the Emperor and Empress of the Terran Empire. Allensworth could tell that the empress was a descendant of Hoshi Sato, who in their universe had proclaimed herself as empress after she obtained control of the USS Defiant that had disappeared in Tholian space in 2268 and ended up in the Mirror Universe back in the year 2155.

The Emperor of the Empire signed a document, finalizing the end of the war and slid it over to Admiral Ross. "The war between the Terran Empire and the Federation is now over."

Admiral Ross stood up and spoke. "Four hundred years ago, a victorious general spoke the following words at the end of another costly war: 'Today the guns are silent. A great tragedy has ended…we have known the bitterness of defeat and the exultation of triumph, and from both, we have learned there can be no going back. We must move forward to preserve in peace what we've won in war."

Captain Sisko grinned as he knew that Ross had said those same words at the end of the Dominion War. The Emperor and Empress stood up and both nodded to the three admirals and walked out of the room with a security escort.

A short time later, the senior officers as well as other crewmembers stood in Ten Forward of the Alexandria-A. Captain Stork and Lieutenant Commander Trinn stood with them as well. In front of the windows was the torpedo casing that held the body of Jason Sparhawk. Empty torpedo casings also served as caskets to officers lost in the line of duty. Each officer held a glass of Chateau Picard and raised it once Allensworth raised his.

"To absent friends."

Each one took a sip from their glass and none of them really spoke afterwards.

"I remember having Jason as my Operations officer and then this guy over here decided to take him and make him his first officer."

Allensworth smiled at the playful jab Stork gave him. "He was a hell of a first officer."

Stork nodded in agreement. Allensworth thought back when he read Sparhawk's record. The man had lost his father in the battle of Wolf 359 and then lost his step-sister during the Dominion War. He knew what it was like lose family members and his heart went out to his mother, who right now was crying her eyes out at the loss of another family member.

The officers all shared their own stories of Commander Sparhawk with each other. Allensworth's attention went from one to the other. His own memories went through his head. He was going to miss him dearly. He raised his glass one more time, this time towards the casket.

"Here's to one of the finest Starfleet officers I've had the honor of serving with. To Commander Jason Sparhawk." Everyone raised their glasses and then took a drink from them.

"He's really not dead." Doctor Plumley said. "As long as we remember him."

Allensworth smiled as he stared at the casket. After a few seconds of looking at the casket, he walked over to Alex Merriell who was standing next to Counselor Nycz and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I know he'd be proud to have you as his successor."

Alex returned a weak smile. "I know, sir. On a more positive note, although I'm not used to it but red does look good on me."

"Yes it does, Commander. Have you decided who would replace you at Ops?"

"One person I had in mind was Lieutenant Commander Ra'chel Johnson."

Allensworth nodded. "All right, as your first duty as first officer, make sure she knows the ropes of being part of alpha shift."

"Yes, sir." Alex said.

Allensworth turned and left. He walked out of the room and headed for his ready room. He was still mourning for his former first officer but Sparhawk did his duty to save the ship and its crew. The needs of the many out weight the needs of the few or the one. It was because of his sacrifice that everyone else on the ship now lives to experience another day. Plumley's statement was correct; Jason was not completely gone as long as people remembered him.

A smile crept along his face as he thought about what lies ahead in the ever changing future. He now had a new first officer and operations officer. He knew then just as he knew now, that everything will be all right.

The End


End file.
